After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 432: What has Mrs. Wang experienced?
The room fell silent.

Everyone looked at Mrs. Lu, the old lady in the fourteenth room, but Mrs. Lu just calmly picked up the tea cup and took a sip of tea and ate a snack.

After finishing eating, she put down her tea cup and said, "You also think something is wrong, don't you? I never thought about it back then. At that time, everything was crowded together and it was so messy. Who would have thought of it?"

Zhou Ma swallowed: "Auntie means...there is something fishy about the fire in the Wang family? Is it related to A's family or my aunt?"

Mrs. Lu mumbled, "Who knows if it's related? Anyway, it didn't make sense for Zhou Shuyi's letter to come at that time. That woman in the West Courtyard always sent messages to our eldest daughter-in-law to ask what Mrs. Wang had told her. It didn't make sense. !”

In fact, Mr. Lu himself didn’t remember. After seeing off Zhou Ma's grandparents and grandson yesterday, the more she thought about it, the more wrong she became, so she called the old woman who had left her eldest daughter-in-law at home to ask about the details.

This old nanny is the eldest daughter-in-law's wet nurse and the dowry girl of her eldest daughter-in-law's mother. She originally lived with her eldest daughter-in-law's mother. A few years ago, the eldest daughter-in-law's mother passed away. She returned to Chang'an for the funeral, so she took the old woman to her in-laws' house to take care of her and help take care of the children on weekdays. Mrs. Wang returned to Liangzhou from the capital before the accident. When passing through Chang'an, she came to visit her eldest sister-in-law and niece. There were some things that were difficult to say to her niece who married into the Zhou family, but she didn't mind mentioning them in front of her eldest sister-in-law. The old mama was originally a daughter of the Wang family, and Mrs. Wang was not shy about speaking in front of her. She followed the old master and heard a lot of things, but she had never connected those words with the fire in the Wang family.

According to the old woman, Mrs. Wang once complained to her eldest sister-in-law, saying that she went to the capital to make friends with powerful people, just to borrow the connections of Zhou Shuyi’s husband’s family, and it was not a big deal. However, Zhou Shuyi resisted and refused to allow relatives. Save face. Mrs. Wang couldn't see her, so she had to get ideas from the old shopkeepers she was married to. It's a pity that the old shopkeepers are willing to help her, but they can't be Zhou Shuyi's boss, and they are also busy completing the things the hostess ordered, so they really can't help her.

Mrs. Wang was very angry, so she quietly went to find out what they were busy with. I only found that they were purchasing many medicinal materials, as well as some kerosene and other things. The former may also be collected for the Zhou family in the northwest, but what is the purpose of the latter? The northwest frontier army mainly defends the city and rarely uses such siege weapons, and there is no need to go all the way to purchase them from the capital.

Mrs. Wang couldn't help but inquire more, only to find that these things were not intended for long-distance transportation, and seemed to be used around the capital. She was shocked at the time. It was the time when the Zhou family and the Sun family were fighting most fiercely. She thought the Zhou family had decided to be cruel to the Sun family! After the accident, the businessmen in the northwest will not be implicated, right? She hurriedly went to inquire with the old shopkeepers she was familiar with, and the latter told her that it was to prepare for digging the rocks, so she left with some doubts.

When she left, she saw a familiar face in Zhou Shuyi's capital business. It was the merchant from the Western Regions who she thought had suspicious origins and reminded Mrs. Ma not to deal with him. Judging from the way this man spoke to the old shopkeepers, Zhou Shuyi seemed to intend to introduce him to other powerful people so that he could sell the precious spices on hand. Mrs. Wang suddenly felt unbalanced. Why would Zhou Shuyi, who is also a businessman, rather introduce powerful people to outsiders than help her relative? !
In anger, Mrs. Wang simply stopped begging Zhou Shuyi, and instead asked for introduction from others, and got acquainted with another powerful family, who also had a queen in the palace. It was precisely to buy a batch of high-quality Western Region gems and spices for this empress that she rushed back to Liangzhou. When she stopped at Chang'an City on the way, she remembered the cold treatment given to her by Mrs. Ma and Zhou Shuyi, mother and daughter, and couldn't help complaining to her sister-in-law, and then hurriedly set off on the road again.

Then she never appeared in front of Lu's eldest daughter-in-law and her mother again.

Mrs. Lu sighed to everyone: "I have never heard that Zhou Shuyi purchased any medicinal materials for the Northwest Frontier Army. The medicinal materials for the Border Army have always been purchased from those time-honored merchants. In the past, the butcher family was also a big family, but they were replaced by those in the West Courtyard. After the mother-in-law took control, she often transported medicinal materials from the northwest to the capital to deliver goods to Zhou Shuyi's business. As for digging rocks, there was no way to talk about it. The dowry that Sanfang bought for her in the capital was either a good shop in a prosperous area. There was no need for her to go to the trouble of digging mountains and clearing roads in the paddy fields on the outskirts of Beijing. Besides, why didn’t she just collect gunpowder? Many flaws were exposed. Mrs. Ma specially invited Lu's eldest daughter-in-law to come over and ask her in detail, which showed that she was also an insider. Mrs. Lu didn't know what kind of shady activities the mother and daughter were planning, but if they continued to deal with the merchants from the Western Regions who were suspected of being Hu spies, then there was a possibility that Mrs. Wang's mouth would be silenced in order to keep it secret. .

Regarding the fire at Wang's Grain Store, Ms. Lu once heard her eldest daughter-in-law and her in-laws mention it, saying that it suddenly started burning in the middle of the night. Due to the dry weather and strong wind, it quickly burned to the ground, but for some unknown reason, the entire fire broke out. No one in the grain store, including the Wang family's masters and servants and the clerks in the grain store, woke up. By the time the surrounding neighbors discovered the fire and came to rescue them, the fire could no longer be put out and no one could escape. The only people who could save their lives after the incident were the members of the Wang family's branch who lived far away, as well as the clerks and guards who had taken leave of absence in advance due to the incident.

In addition to the people from Wang's Grain Store, there were also people nearby who were affected by the fire, resulting in many casualties. The Liangzhou Guard's grain supply was also in short supply at that time, so several batches of grain and grass were urgently transferred from surrounding guard stations to help, so that the soldiers could not suffer. Hungry.

Because there was no war with the Hu people at that time, Liangzhou people had always suspected that the people who set the fire were the nearby sand and horse thieves who wanted to weaken the combat power of the local garrison, but no one came forward to admit it.

The consequences of this fire were so serious that after word spread back to Chang'an, everyone was worried about it. Mrs. Ma actually had the time to ask Mrs. Wang carefully what she had said to her relatives and friends and who she had met after returning from the capital. Not to mention Mrs. Lu's eldest daughter-in-law, even Mrs. Lu, who was two floors away, thought she was ridiculous. If it hadn't been for the support of the third room and the fourteenth room back then, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law would have fallen out with Mrs. Ma.

Mrs. Lu recalled that year and couldn't help but sigh: "If I had known what would happen today, I should have fallen out with her directly! The old man was still there at that time. Although he had been deceived by the woman, but if If our fourteenth room dares to make a big deal, he will have to ask a few words..."

Zhou Yijun asked in a low voice: "What the old lady has always wanted to know is what my great-uncle said today, right? If the fire in the Wang family was really done by the old lady and my great-aunt to destroy Mrs. Wang's eloquence, then... Mrs. Wang was What’s the secret behind what I saw? Is it because of that merchant from the Western Region?”

Haitang looked back at her brother: "Could this merchant from the Western Regions be the Hu spy who was caught by the Sun family? Because he was caught, Zhou Shuyi was worried that her relationship with him would be leaked, so she was anxious Kill Mrs. Wang’s mouth?”

Hai Jiao said: "I don't think so. There are many people who know that she has a relationship with the merchants from the Western Regions. If you really want to clear up the relationship, what's the point of just killing Mrs. Wang's mouth? Mrs. Wang is a third-bedroom relative. , the worst thing is to coax Mrs. Wang with nice words and promise to help Mrs. Wang introduce a few powerful people to shut up Mrs. Wang. It’s not like Mrs. Wang has trouble with money. How can she insist on causing trouble for her relatives just to express her anger? ?”

What he was more curious about was, what were those medicinal materials and kerosene used for? Since it was not purchased for the Northwest Frontier Army and it was necessary to hide it from others, what on earth was Zhou Shuyi doing back then? !

(End of this chapter)